For
this column today I give precedence to one of my writing students. I
have personally invited Anthony Hunter to share the story he wrote
about his ancestors, early settlers in Union County, Georgia.

It
has been my privilege to give some instruction in creative writing to
Tony over a period of several years.He
learned of me by reading one of my articles in the paper, a
correspondence developed, and “by mail” creative writing
instruction began.

I
have seen him develop in perception and skill as a writer.He is facile in poetry, essays, short stories and family history.I didn’t have to instruct him very much; he
already had the inherent talent for positioning words creatively.My contribution, perhaps, has been to
encourage him and to give him pointers in grammatical structure and
punctuation.

I
hope you enjoy Anthony Hunter’s family account.If
you find ancestral links to the people he writes about, know that he
has researched thoroughly to bring to the public this article.

The
Story of Tillman Gooch by: Anthony Hunter, Guest Writer

Lying
within the ChattahoocheeNational
Forest
along the southern arm of the Appalachian
Trail, just a few miles south of BloodMountain in Union
County, Georgia is a
once well-used mountain pass whose name is now all but forgotten.

Gooch’s Gap with its southern exposure is unusually rich with
lush green flora.The deciduous hardwoods
with a scattering of stately eastern white pines tower over a forest
floor covered nearly knee-high in an abundance of native plant life.

As the gap is only accessible by foot, the quiet hiker might
expect to see all manner of wildlife from chipmunks to squirrels, deer
and turkey, or the rare spotted elf newt and perhaps even a fleeting
glimpse of the shy black bear.But if you
ever do make the journey to this serene, remote place, bear in mind
that it is also a doorway into time, and therein lies part of its
treasure.

Many of our landmarks such as Gooch’s Gap are so named as a
dedication and memorial to the hardy, brave pioneers who ventured forth
into unknown lands as settlers.Tillman D.
Gooch was but one among the ranks.He was
a family man, a farmer, a prospector and an adventurer.The son of a farmer, he was born in Greenville
County, South
Carolina in the year 1800.It was there he lived his youth.Although
young for a man of his era to marry, at the age of 19 Tillman wed Mary
Elizabeth Justice who was born in Franklin County, North Carolina.She was 19 as well.

Their first child, Samuel, was born in South
Carolina in 1824.Before
the birth of their second child, Caroline, in 1926, the young family
ventured forth into the then-Cherokee nation in the area of Georgia that
became RabunCounty.

No documents or journals have been found that record Tillman
Gooch’s life.But living through oral
family history, two things have been passed on about the man.First is the fact that he and his wife, Mary
Elizabeth, did not get along well.Their
marriage was an on-again—off-again affair. This probably contributed to
the second known fact about Tillman: that he was an adventurous man.

In his wanderings or by conversing with the native Cherokee,
Tillman learned of a certain mountain pass that led to the headwaters
of the ToccoaRiver.By crossing the gap, traversing down along the
Toccoa River as far as the present town of Blue Ridge, then veering
southwest through the connecting valleys, he found a route through the
mountains that led to the Cherokee Nation’s Cherokee County.It was a week-long trip by horse, deep in the
heart of CherokeeCounty.To travel the distance was just part of the
everyday life of men such as he.

Whether planning to move his family or to leave them, Tillman
purchased land in CherokeeCounty.Then for reasons unknown, he lost that land in
1834 in a sheriff’s land sale to a man named Andrew Miller.

Between 1826 and 1838, Tillman and Mary Elizabeth had five more
children: Elizabeth Ann, James Madison, Adaline, Mary and Margaret.Their children numbered five daughters and two
sons.

About the time the Cherokee were removed on the infamous Trail
of Tears (1838-39), Tillman left his wife and children never to return.Some say he left to help drive the Cherokee
out.If this be true, why did his own
daughter, Mary Jane, apply for enrollment with the Eastern Band of
Cherokee in 1907? Wouldn’t one of her
parents had to have been Indian?Her mother Mary Elizabeth was not removed.Could it be that Tillman was part Cherokee and
ordered to leave?Or could there have been
another reason for his disappearance—like love?

Two years before the famous gold strike at Sutter’s Mill, California in
1850, Tillman arrived in SutterCounty.There he married a lady named Nancy Miller
(without divorcing his first wife, Mary Elizabeth).Was she kin to the man Andrew Miller
to whom Tillman lost his land in CherokeeCounty in
1834?We may never know.But in the days when divorce was almost unheard of, how could a
man be with his new love without running away with her?Regardless, Tillman and Nancy stayed married for the reminder of
their lives.Perhaps Tillman found the
happiness denied him with his first wife, Mary Elizabeth.

All of Tillman Gooch’s children married and had children of
their own.Both of his sons, Sam and Jim,
settled at the very foot of the gap named after their father.Sam settled on the southern side in the
Nimblewell District of Lumpkin County.His
brother Jim settled on the northern side of the gap in the area known
as Sarah at the very headwaters of the ToccoaRiver in
the greater area called Suches in UnionCounty.The two Gooch brothers married sisters, Betsy
and Elvira Grizzle.

The legacy from Tillman D. Gooch is not the high mountain pass
named after him.Like many of our pioneer
forefathers, his legacy is the children he left behind—children who
became men and women that love their mountain home so that it has
become the very fiber of their being.These
children and their descendants went on to become farmers, teachers,
soldiers, business owners, craftpersons, moonshiners, homemakers,
artists, timber cutters, successful politicians, church leaders—the
sons and daughters of the American dream.

And if by chance you wish to attend a Gooch Reunion where there
might be 500 present, you will be sure to learn the real meaning of the
words “southern hospitality.”I’ll see
y’all there—or maybe on the mountain.

(Note: Anthony
Hunter is a great, great, great grandson of Tillman D. Gooch.)

c2008 by Ethelene
Dyer Jones; published July 31, 2008 in The Union
Sentinel, Blairsville, GA.Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.